DRUG-WAR PLAN PANNED IN ADVANCE

Too Ideological: MPs

A national anti-drug strategy that Prime Minister Stephen Harper is
set to launch in Winnipeg today has been panned in advance by
opposition party critics as too ideological.

The government is embracing a U.S.-style "war on drugs" that
approaches drug abuse as more of a criminal matter than a health
issue, Liberal and NDP critics said yesterday.

Vancouver Liberal MP Keith Martin, a surgeon, and New Democrat Libby
Davies, her party's drug policy critic, used similar terms in
separate interviews about the $64-million plan. Martin said pot and
hard drugs like cocaine should not be equated in "an ideological war
on drugs." Davies said Harper is "caught in an ideological time warp."

The plan is expected to include a major "no safe drugs" education
campaign targeted at youth and parents, aimed in part at clearing up
what Health Minister Tony Clement has said is "confusion" about the
safety and legality of marijuana.